Background

The International Young Professionals Summit traces its origin to the 50th Anniversary of the Commonwealth Engineers Council (CEC) in 1996.

CEC is the umbrella organisation of the national institutions of engineers in the Commonwealth.  CEC was founded in 1946 by the Institutions of Engineers of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.  CEC and her founding members helped to establish national institutions of engineers in all the newly independent nations of the Commonwealth.

It was decided that the 50th Anniversary would be focused on the most important challenge for humankind in the next 50 years.  The theme was thus set as, "Engineering to Survive - Global solutions for sustainable development".  As the next half century of the engineering profession rightly would belong to young engineers, it was decided that active participation of young engineers would be very significant.

An essay competition on sustainable development by young engineers was conducted throughout the Commonwealth in 1995.  The winner and five runners-up from all regions of the Commonwealth were invited to the CEC 50th Anniversary Conference in the Institution of Engineers, London, 18 - 21 March 1996.  Twenty-five engineering students from Commonwealth countries also attended.  They had the opportunity to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku during the reception.  The conference was opened by Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, Minister of Overseas Development, UK.

The favourable reaction from many quarters to the active participation of young engineers and engineering students with proper gender balance encouraged CEC to organise the first Commonwealth Young Engineers Seminar as CEC's contribution to the numerous Commonwealth NGO activities during CHOGM 1997 in Edinburgh.  The seminar submitted a memorandum to CHOGM and decided to form the Commonwealth Young Engineers Network (CYEN).

CYEN was envisaged as a virtual network utilising the Internet as a means of communication and discussion for its members.  It was felt that occasional face-to-face meetings would greatly strengthen CYEN.  CYEN soon realised that issues of sustainable development are the common concern for all young professionals, not just young engineers.  CYEN would need to involve other young professionals at its next meeting.

The Millennium Commonwealth Day, March 2000, London would seem a most opportune, historic and auspicious occasion.  CEC wrote to the Commonwealth Secretary General for his approval to include the Commonwealth Young Professionals Conference (CYPC) as part of the Millennium Commonwealth Day celebration.  Chief Anyaoku warmly welcomed this CEC and CYEN initiative.  The Commonwealth Secretariat invited the Chair of CYEN to the 1999 Commonwealth Youth Forum in Kuala Lumpur to promote CYPC.

CYPC was successfully held on 18 March 2000 in the Institution of Civil Engineers, London with HRH the Princess Royal as the guest of honour.  CYPC was a truly multi-professional conference.  The meeting decided to change the CYEN to CYPN with Malaysia offering to be the hub.  The meeting also decided to organise the International Young Professionals Summit during CHOGM 2001 in Australia. 

Follow this link to the declaration that emerged from the International Young Professionals Conference in 2000.